ADRIAN — A “not guilty” plea was entered Wednesday for Steven Daniel Storm when the Vandercook Lake man was arraigned on an open murder charge in the killing of Sandra Johnson of Woodstock Township.

Storm, 42, said nothing during the brief procedure in Lenawee County Circuit Court. He was handed a notice for a Feb. 27 hearing date, led out of the courtroom and returned to jail. He has been held without bond since his arrest on Nov. 21.

Family members and friends of the victim said they are still trying to understand how Johnson could have ended up as a murder victim.

“She was truly a victim,” said LuAnn Bearden, one of the Lenawee County sheriff’s detectives working on the case.

Johnson, 63, was retired from General Motors and leading an active life of being involved with family and her grandchildren’s activities. Her hobbies included playing the hammered dulcimer, sewing, yoga and stained glass work, according to her obituary.

“She was a beautiful, wonderful woman,” said daughter Tamyra David-Maige of Onsted.

“We don’t want her remembered for what happened to her, instead of as the person she was,” said Michelle Evans, also a daughter.

They said they are still waiting for answers to questions about why Storm would want to harm their mother.

Johnson and Storm knew each other, but it was not much more than being acquainted, prosecutors have said.

“We knew of him. We did not know him,” Evans said.

Storm has no criminal record and was living with his wife and children at the time of the murder. He told court officials he was unemployed and had no money in his bank accounts before a public defender was assigned to represent him.

Details of what detectives have learned about a possible motive remain confidential. Some of that information was expected to be revealed in a preliminary examination in district court to establish probable cause to send Storm to circuit court for trial. Instead, his attorney waived that hearing on Jan. 11.

All that has been made public about the case is that Storm became a suspect during a review of Johnson’s bank records a few days after her murder. She is believed to have been killed at her home on Nov. 16. Her body was found a few miles away at a public boat launch on Crispell Lake in Jackson County’s Liberty Township. Asphyxia is the cause of death listed on her death certificate.

No resolution of the case is now expected at the Feb. 27 hearing scheduled before Judge Timothy P. Pickard.

“There hasn’t been a plea bargain discussed,” said Lenawee County Prosecutor Burke Castleberry. “At this point we’re preparing for trial.”